Rules for ``Enid'' - A card game for 2 to 5 players

18th April 1989

Thanks to some neat archaeology on the part of Steve ``Haldane''
Sykes
<haldane@stephensykes.com>,
I now have - finally - a copy of the rules for ``Enid'' that I wrote
thirteen years ago when I was a humble maths-and-CS undergraduate at
Warwick University.

At the time, I posted the rules to a newsgroup -
I can't remember which one, but it was probably either
misc.misc or talk.bizarre - and the original copy
was lost. Since then, I've lived in hope that I'd stumble across an
archived copy, and Steve found one at
www.nmt.edu/~schlake/humor/e/enid[local copy].

The text of this file is essentially identical to that message, but
with a few typos fixed and some HTML formatting applied.

Date: Tue Apr 18 17:45:56 1989From: mirk@warwick.UUCP (Mike Taylor)Subject: A brilliant new card game (long but fabulous)Disclaimer: This game invented by
Carver/Hodge/Lessacher/Taylor

The game of Enid developed over a number of late nights towards the
end of last term and start of this; it is based on the classic
card-game Blackjack, but we hold it to be more educational, since it
has strong influences from the fields of computer science,
piscatorial zoology and english literature.

For the benefit of those readers not acquainted with the relatively
pedestrian game of Blackjack, a summary follows. Those who already
know this game can skip straight to the section detailing the ways
in which Enid differs from Blackjack, after the dashed line.

In Blackjack, each player is dealt a hand of seven cards, and the
remainder of the deck is placed face down on the table, except for
one card which is turned face up. The first player to get rid of
all his (or her; throughout this article, masculine pronouns are
used in a non-gender-specific sense) cards is the winner. A player
loses a card by placing it face up on top of the current face-up
card; it must follow either suit or rank except in special
circumstances mentioned below.

Play starts with the player to the left of the dealer, and passes to
the left until one player has one. Any player unable to take his
turn must instead draw the top card from the face-down deck. When
this deck is exhausted, it is replenished from the stock of face-up
cards.

This is ``natural'' Blackjack. As it stands it is a rather dull
game; thus it is enhanced by the addition of ``magic'' cards. That
is, cards of certain rank have special effects. These are:

Ace

The player playing an ace nominates a new suit, which the next
play must follow.

Two

The next player is forced to pick up two cards unless he is
able to lay another two, in which case the player after must
pick up four cards. If he is able to play another two, he may
do this instead, in which case the next player picks up six,
etc.

Seven

The direction of play is reversed.

Eight

The player who laid the eight must immediately follow
it with any other card in his hand; the second card
need not follow suit or rank as in the usual case. If the
player is unable to follow an eight (ie. it was his last card)
he must draw from the deck.

Ten

The player may lay any or all cards from his hand which
are of the same suit as the Ten just laid.

Jack

A black Jack causes the next player to pick up seven
cards, unless he can follow with a red jack (which
neutralises the black jack) or another black jack, in
which case the next player must draw fourteen cards,
unless able to lay a red jack (reducing the penalty
for the next player to seven cards).

Queen

The next player is skipped.

King

The next two players are skipped.

One last rule is that a player with only a single card left must say
``Last card'' as soon as he has laid his last-but-one; otherwise he
must pick up seven, in an astonishingly witty way.

This, then, is the usual game of Blackjack. Some regional
variations exist in the exact powers of the magic cards, but those
listed above are typical, and make a balanced and witty game.

In a different league altogether, however, is Enid. This builds on
the usual rules in a number of ways. Firstly, the suits are
renamed; no longer are they Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds, but
Carp, Sturgeon, Halibut and Dalmations. (The dalmation is, of
course, not a fish, but is included for historical reasons).

Secondly the card ranks are renamed after eminent computer
scientists:

Black Ace

Rob McMahon
(Warwick computer Unit's SuperGuru)

Red Ace

Jeff Smith
(Warwick computer Department's Guru)

Two

Marvin Minsky
(AI pioneer and researcher)

Three

Dennis M. Richie
(Co-inventor of C and UNIX)

Four

Brian W. Kernighan
(Co-inventor of C)

Five

Tarski
(aka. "The Boring One")

Six

Alan Turing
(Pioneer of computational theory)

Seven

Alonzo Church
(as in the Church-Turing thesis)

Eight

Aho/Sethi/Hopcroft/Ullman
(Authors who only ever work together)

Nine

Terry Wogan
(Not really a computer scientist)

Ten

Terry Winograd
(Natural language researcher)

Black Jack

Mark Rafter
(Warwick C++ guru)

Red Jack

John Buckle
(Warwick frisbee guru)

Queen

Julia Dain
(Warwick compiler-design guru)

King

Ken Thompson
(The inventor of UNIX)

Obviously, players from other establishments may wish to rename the
Aces, Jacks and Queen after local people. For historical reasons,
the red aces are always referred to as ``Jeffy-pheasant(sic) without
/cs/res'', the King as ``Kendall Mint Thompson'', and the
Queen either as ``Julia Dain'', ``Julia Ordain'', ``Julia Hors
d'Ouvre'' or ``Julia Hors d'Ouvre which must be obeyed as all
times''. The Ten may be referred to as the ``Terry Winograd'',
``Terry who Mage can't pronounce'', or ``The bloke who wrote
SHRDLU''. (Mage can't pronounce ``Winograd''.)

To encourage the use of these new names, each card played must be
named by the player as it is laid, without reading it off a list.
This is difficult at first, and tends to discourage the over-use of
the eight, but in time becomes second nature. Any player unable to
name his card is forced to draw from the pack, and the card's
``magic'' effect, if any, is nullified.

Whenever a Dennis M. Richie or a Brian W. Kernighan is played, the
player must make up a middle name, beginning with the appropriate
initial, which may not be re-used later in the same session of play,
on pain of being forced, once again, to draw from the deck. The
middle names may not be proper nouns unless they are really good
ones. Any player nominating ``Water-buffalo'' as Brian Kernighan's
middle name must pick up seven cards.

Whenever an Alonzo Church is played, reversing the direction of
play, the player laying the card must shout triumphantly at the
player who would have played next, had the Church not been
played: ``Haaargh! Be Alonzo Churched! (a bit)''.

Anybody playing a black Alan Turing may force the next player to
compose and recite a limerick, the first line being chosen by the
player laying the Alan Turing, unless this player can follow the
Turing with another black Alan Turing, which passes the limerick
onto the next player, or a red one, which cancels it entirely. If
it doesn't scan or rhyme properly - or if it is just no good - the
other players may elect to force the poet to draw from the deck
anyway.

The card from which the game draws its name is, of course, the Enid
Blyton. This card is always a nine, and its suit during any game is
determined by the suit of the first card to be turned over at the
start of the game. The enid is a kind of ``smart-bomb'' among cards
- it can get its possessor out of almost anything. For instance a
Mark Rafter can be annulled not only by a John Buckle (to the ritual
cry of ``My John Buckle casts your Mark Rafter to type
void!''), but also by the Enid Blyton. Similarly, the Enid
can cancel any number of consecutive Marvin Minskys, or indeed Alan
Turings.

Another property of the Enid Blyton is that if the player laying it
is able to name it correctly, then all other players are immediately
forced to draw from the deck, thus making the Enid a useful weapon
against a player with only one card remaining. (Incidentally, in
this game, Blackjack's traditional call of ``Last card'' is replaced
by ``Last St. Francis of Assisi;;. Forgetting this results,
predictably, in being forced to draw seven cards from the deck)

Naming the Enid is a more difficult task than it may seem, since
each time it is correctly named, the player laying it adds another
middle name onto the list, which starts empty at the beginning of
the session of play. (Note: it is not re-zero'd between
games - only at the start of a whole new session.) Once four or
five such middle names have been added, it can become quite
difficult to remember them all (They must of course, be in the right
order)

An example of a growing Enid, taken from the very first ever game of
Enid that we played, is:

Enid Blyton

Enid Flamboyant Blyton

Enid Flamboyant Disjoint Blyton

Enid Flamboyant Disjoint Ornithological Blyton

Enid Flamboyant Disjoint Ornithological Aestheticism Blyton

A player attempting to lay the Enid, but unable accurately to name
it must draw a number of cards from the deck equal to the current
tally of middle names, and forfeits the right to add a new middle
name.

Well, there you have it. Curiously enough, this isn't just a
set of silly rules, but does actually make a frogging good game - it
keeps us amused for hours, and well repays the time taken in
learning its rules, which are, of course, fairly fluid. I strongly
urge you to have a go.

If you play this game, please email me with any comments, ideas for
new rules, particularly good middle names for Enid Blyton, etc. My
address is in my signature at the bottom of this article.